Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Dumb motherfuckers cannot understand a consequence that most 4 year olds have fully sorted out.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

The words do not have to be perfect.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you do not.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

You are here: Home / Civil Rights / Women's Rights / A Woman's Place Is In The House / Wednesday Morning Open Thread: COLD

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: COLD

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I half-way suspect some of the media enthusiasm for Kamala Harris this week is that reporters would *much* rather be in Oakland than Des Moines. I spent 15 years in the comparatively clement part of Michigan, and frankly, even the winter of 1978 made me seriously reconsider my life choices. Thoughts & prayers to all you Jackals in the Midwest!

In happier news:

“I don’t shine if you don’t shine.“

Reader Interactions

253Comments

  1. 1.

    Nodaker

    -36F here in the land of Nodak right now. A few spots have hit -40, and still a few hours of cooling before dawn.

    On the upside, the wind has died down, so we’ve got that going for us.

  2. 2.

    Baud

    Glad Pelosi is getting recognized for her skills. Makes me wonder what would have happened if Hillary were given that chance.

  4. 4.

    Cermet

    Good morning Jackals! Stay warm.

    Nancy “Smash” Pelosi was truly great when she passed “Obama” care. Now that she really did smash the orange fart cloud everyone realizes she isn’t just a talented Speaker but a brilliant politician in her own right who was always underestimated by the media – I wonder why? That she is a woman, a dem, and a liberal means she can’t be taken seriously nor put on the early morning bobble head shows. For the beltway media (of men) hasn’t just been caught flat footed but also with their own dick’s under their feet! About time the people started to appreciate what woman dems can really do for the country – certainly not like republican speakers such as a certain pedophilia (of the famous so-named rule that the media likes to quotes) or the craven coward like ryan.

  6. 6.

    penobscott dorkins

    It’s minus 25 f right now here where I am in the badger state. And it’s supposed to drop a few more degrees in the next few hours. And there’s a brisk wind.

    Wunderground is saying the wind chill will be 45-55 below. Brrr.

  7. 7.

    JeanneT

    Good morning? Just suited up my dog pack and sent them out to pee (we’re in Grand Rapids, MI). They did not linger long before they were ready to come back in! -2 F real temp, -20 wind chill. Temps will be falling through the day.

    I keep reminding myself “it’s much warmer HERE than Chicago and Milwaukee.” Then again, it’s not snowing over there on the west side of the lake. At least the snow piles in my yard are getting high enough to act as wind breaks for the smaller dogs, if they keep their heads down. No birds or squirrels have been seen since yesterday morning – I hope they’ve all found some sheltered places to hunker down the next two days.

    Many of the businesses in town are shut down, as are the schools, and many churches are open as warming centers. I’ve been keeping my driveway clear so I can go rescue my 92 yr old MIL if the heat goes out in her apartment; rather than bring her out into the cold, I’ll go buy her some space heaters….

  8. 8.

    plato

    @Cermet:

    The women media bobble heads aren’t that great either. Fresh faces can do better than these time worn ‘journos’.

  9. 9.

    OzarkHillbilly

    it is an unquestionably thankless job that gets you blamed for everything by everyone inside and outside your caucus. It drove Boehner to madness, Ryan to irrelevance, Gingrich to punchline status, and Hastert to…well…

    Notice how every unpopular Speaker he cites is a Republican? Accident? I think not!

    @Baud: Apparently, the secret is to make a comment. Then the new posts magically appear. I went to one of the dead threads and said, “…………………..” and Voila! If a luddite like me can hack his way into your super special VIP club, you ain’t all that!

    Nyah nyah na nyah nyah…

  10. 10.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @JeanneT:

    No birds or squirrels have been seen since yesterday morning – I hope they’ve all found some sheltered places to hunker down the next two days.

    If you have bird seed, put it out for them. Fuel for the internal furnaces.

    Supposed to hit 0 here with gusts of 23 mph, a high of 8 today. Blech.

  12. 12.

    JPL

    It’s a balmy 22 here, and Mr. Finch ran out and back in without going to the bathroom. I encouraged him to try again and he was not happy.
    Wildlife tend to adjust to their environs but temperatures that low have to be a shock to the system. Stay safe everyone.

  13. 13.

    OzarkHillbilly

    A good (short) read:

    On top of this, Schultz was also asked by NPR whether he would support combating inequality through corporate governance reform. Warren has offered such a proposal, which would mandate worker representation on boards of billion-dollar corporations and require them to obtain federal charters instructing them to factor the interests of all stakeholders, including workers and communities. The goal is to reestablish an ethic of social responsibility to combat the culture of “shareholder supremacy” that has helped produce extreme wealth concentrations at the top.

    Schultz conceded to NPR that shareholder supremacy is a serious problem, and he has acted out that view as a CEO. But he also said, “I don’t think I would be changing laws” to address it, instead vowing to persuade CEOs to accept a “moral obligation and responsibility” to do “more” for “employees and the communities we serve.” Again, whether or not you support Warren’s proposal, it is more grounded as policy than this airy solution, which also doesn’t sound terribly realistic.

    At the core of this sort of centrism is the idea that there’s a hallowed middle ground that — simply by virtue of being equidistant between arbitrarily designated and presumptively equivalent “extremes” — is inherently sensible, virtuous, and above all, non-ideological. This idea is certainly far more seductive than it should be. But it doesn’t give rise to anything resembling realism. In a way, it’s a rigid ideology all its own.

    -Greg Sargent

  15. 15.

    OzarkHillbilly

    And I’ve been struck by the reactions of tax experts like Lily Batchelder and David Kamin; while they don’t necessarily endorse the Warren plan, they clearly see it as serious and worthy of consideration. It is, writes Kamin, “addressed at a real problem” and “goes big as it should.” Warren, says The Times, has been “nerding out”; well, the nerds are impressed.

    But do ideas this bold stand a chance in 21st-century American politics? The usual suspects are, of course, already comparing Warren to Nicolás Maduro or even Joseph Stalin, despite her actually being more like Teddy Roosevelt or, for that matter, Dwight Eisenhower. More important, my sense is that a lot of conventional political wisdom still assumes that proposals to sharply raise taxes on the wealthy are too left-wing for American voters.

    But public opinion surveys show overwhelming support for raising taxes on the rich. One recent poll even found that 45 percent of self-identified Republicans support Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s suggestion of a top rate of 70 percent. By the way, polls also show overwhelming public support for increasing, not cutting, spending on Medicare and Social Security. Strange to say, however, we rarely hear politicians who demand “entitlement reform” dismissed as too right-wing to be taken seriously.
    …………………………
    The bottom line is that there may be far more scope for a bold progressive agenda than is dreamed of in most political punditry. And Elizabeth Warren has just taken an important step on that agenda, pushing her party to go big. Let’s hope her rivals — some of whom are also quite impressive — follow her lead.

    -Krugman

  16. 16.

    Baud

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    We have always polled well on our issues. Our problem comes when we ask voters to support our people when they run in elections or work to make policy ideas into legislation.

  17. 17.

    PST

    Here in Chicago, my goal today is to master tying off poop bags with gloves on. No back yards in my neighborhood— every comfort break must be taken with an attached human.

  21. 21.

    geg6

    Got a free day off due to extreme cold. It’s -3 degrees right now and expected to go down to -20 as temps fall all day. On the positive side, it’s supposed to get to the 50s by early next week.

  23. 23.

    Mustang Bobby

    I spent about 45 years in places that get winter, including Minneapolis and Petoskey, Michigan. I don’t ever remember it being this cold when I lived there. It’s -28 F in Minneapolis as I write this at 6:39 a.m. ET. That means there’s an 83-degree temp difference between there and here (downtown Miami) where at 55 F I saw people on the train wearing hats, parkas, and mittens. They have no idea.

    Meanwhile, it’s the extreme heat in Australia that’s making the news: 116 F in Adelaide. But climate change is a Chinese hoax.

  24. 24.

    JeanneT

    @PST: Subzero poop scooping in -40 windchill? Ugh – You have my sympathy! This week I have taken to wearing a pair of light gloves under my heavy mittens, just so I can shed the mitten if needed w/out exposing my fingers.

  26. 26.

    Immanentize

    Hi All. Stay inside if you can. Our cold crash doesn’t hit until tomorrow, but it’s only going down to 5 or so and will only last a day or two. Thank you, Atlantic ocean.

  29. 29.

    Cermet

    Here in DC it is relatively warm at 22 F. Our low will be 6 F, however. I have a St. Bernard and she enjoys these temps – especially if there is snow (she loves to roll in the snow.) So, I guess it is a matter of perceptive (or actually, an innate fur coat … .)

  30. 30.

    lethargytartare

    minus 20 when I arrived at work this morning. Radio calling for wind chills as low as minus 60. I guess we don’t have to worry about global warming anymore. /trumpster

  31. 31.

    poleaxedbyboatwork

    … At the core of this sort of centrism is the idea that there’s a hallowed middle ground that … is inherently sensible, virtuous, and above all, non-ideological. This idea is certainly far more seductive than it should be. But it doesn’t give rise to anything resembling realism. In a way, it’s a rigid ideology all its own.

    -Greg Sargent

    Ahem. Impolitely speaking, it’s that, in *every* fucking way.

    At the core of this sort of “centrism” is a rigid ideological adherance to libertarianistic “wouldn’t–it-be-pretty-to-think-so” green-lanternism (clap louder, motherfuckers! the free-market fairy n the invisible hand is Bill-O-Papa-Bear lookin out for you!) and (and this is new, so ever’body pay close attention now!) a feckless (but sincere!) appeal to noblesse oblige (which assumes much, including facts not in evidence) from the Masters of the Universe to treat their wage-slaves just a little better, if the Koch Bros. don’t mind n it ain’t too much trouble for the Mercers.

    Fer fuck’s sakes, whatta douchenozzle.

    Remember when alla the Trump tax cuts to plutocrats were gonna get reinvested back into the economy? Just you watch! But then alla that cashola got hoovered up and went (as predicted) directly into executive bonuses and stock options? Woo-hoo! Fun times. “Thanks for playing, suckers!”

    Oh, and a fatuous insistence that a rich-guy’s ideology ain’t ideological is [cough] rich. And that’ll all happen cuz, apparently, Schultz sez so. (Tautologically speaking.)

    Schultz is too bizzy huffing his own pits like Otto inna Fish Callt Wanda to realize how completely fulla shit he is.

    Will grant that laws are oft arbitrarily written and selectively enforced but *at fucking least* they’re something one can draw upon for redress. Relying on the goodwill of ‘Murica’s plutocrats cuz Howard sez he’s gonna line ’em out and shape ’em up is (to lean on the bard, cuz I’m all arty like that) a tale told by an idiot, fulla sound and flurry, signifying bullshit. It’s asking Americans to be as pollyannaish as Schultz apparently is. (Course, could be part of the con, too; stupid or evil conundrum, not mutually exclusive.)

    Um, thanks, no, Howard. You may thanks to be fucking off now.

  35. 35.

    JPL

    @Immanentize: My son had a possibility of going, but as I mentioned earlier he has other things to attend to. Tis okay though because he is still upset about Atlanta’s loss to the Patriots. He’d just bring negative energy to the game.

  36. 36.

    JPL

    @OzarkHillbilly: Yes and I’m pretty obnoxious about it. I purchased him Valentine p.j.’s.
    @Cermet: Next Tuesday.. My new roof was suppose to put on then, and I pushed it back a week. Their little Maltese is visiting and barks if she hears an ice cube drop, so it would stressful for her.

  37. 37.

    Amir Khalid

    Brrr. For a tropical person like me, with little real experience of winter, the kind of cold you all are describing is just beyond imagining. Stay warm, people. Stay safe.

  38. 38.

    OzarkHillbilly

    In contrast, Coats said that US intelligence “continue to assess that Iran is not currently undertaking the key nuclear weapons-development activities we judge necessary to produce a nuclear device”.

    He noted that Iran’s activities are limited by the 2015 multilateral nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), but as Iran derives ever fewer benefits from the deal, hardliners are pressing for the state to break free of those constraints. Trump abrogated the JCPOA in May last year and his administration has threatened sanctions against anyone doing business with Iran.

    Pompeo and the national security adviser, John Bolton, have described Iran as the biggest terrorist threat in the world, but the intelligence community’s worldwide threats assessment does not echo that view. It lists Iran below Isis and al-Qaida and homegrown extremists.

    We have found the enemy and he is us.

    On a day that Trump ridiculed concern about climate change because of the current blast of arctic weather in the midwest, the intelligence report also includes sombre predictions of the repercussions of global warming.

    Trump has dismissed climate change as a hoax, and on Tuesday tweeted: “What the hell is going on with Global Waming? Please come back fast, we need you!”

    The administration has scrubbed references to climate science from government websites, but Coats’s report presented it as a major threat.

    “Climate hazards such as extreme weather, higher temperatures, droughts, floods, wildfires, storms, sea level rise, soil degradation, and acidifying oceans are intensifying, threatening infrastructure, health, and water and food security,” Coats warned.

    I guess they didn’t get the memo.

  39. 39.

    Viva BrisVegas

    @poleaxedbyboatwork:

    I don’t know if it is something that can more easily seen from outside the country, but when people talk about centrism in the US they lose sight of the fact that the Democratic Party is centrist. Certainly it has a left and right wing, but the core of the party is avowedly centrist.

    Calling other political entities centrist is like calling calling Starbuck’s coffee good. It’s a misrepresentation and an appropriation.

    I feel for all our shivery jackals, but to tell the truth it’s only in an intellectual sense. It’s been so hot here, for so long, I now lack the imagination to recall what cold feels like.

    Surely someone, somewhere has got a spare wormhole to shift some of that lovely cold to a place in desperate need of it.

  41. 41.

    JPL

    Whoa! Twitter is telling me that the Clemson team that visited the White House were mainly Freshmen and Sophomores. Only six players from the Championship team went. That seemed to be obscured until now.

  43. 43.

    debbie

    How rude of Trump to make that handshake at such an awkward angle for a woman of Pelosi’s size!

  46. 46.

    debbie

    @JeanneT:

    -1 and -8 with wind chill here in central Ohio. I’m planning on working from home, but I doubt my car would start regardless. It took a while to start yesterday when it was a balmy 20. I don’t think a ten-month-old Civic should be doing that.

  47. 47.

    poleaxedbyboatwork

    Onna much less apoplectic note:

    Wanted to say thank you to whomever it was (raven? quinerly? sorry, don’t recollect) who recommended the Knopfler and Emmylou album. It’s beautiful. If you’ve ever felt sorrow and loss of any kind, “If This Is Goodbye” is just aching bittersweet perfection.

  48. 48.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @debbie: I’m small too and I noticed how awkwardly he has her arm bent.

    ETA: It’s -25. My building sent around a notice saying they’re having trouble keeping the public areas at the normal temperature.

  49. 49.

    satby

    @PST: I have a back yard but it’s open, so I have to accompany the dogs out each time too. They haven’t been inclined to linger, which is good. It’s -15 but feels like nearly gale force winds: the wind chill is -52 and my chair shelter for the neighborhood cat was blown into my yard. Fortunately, I talked to the owner and he’s keeping the cat inside. Still worried about any other critters, but I put tons of food and suet and corn out, so they at least had fuel to keep warm. I hope.

  50. 50.

    debbie

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    vowing to persuade CEOs to accept a “moral obligation and responsibility” to do “more” for “employees and the communities we serve.”

    Thanks for the early morning laugh. Trickle-down compassion. As if.

  51. 51.

    rikyrah

    Well, I had already decided to take the day off, when the word came down from the boss that we had today off….. I almost cried last night, waiting for the Lyft at the train station..when the wind hit my face,it hurt….and, it was just zero….I am not leaving this house for the next 48 hours.

  52. 52.

    debbie

    @Baud:

    Because we haven’t overcome the smears and lies from the GOP. Maybe with someone as over the top as Trump, it will be better this time around.

  53. 53.

    TS (the original)

    And f.u. M.J. – democrats are in disarray. Every pundit will be back supporting the GOP once trump is gone. They really want to keep their tax cuts.

  54. 54.

    Viva BrisVegas

    @Baud:

    Yes, but labels can be used to redefine reality.

    When you aquiese to the label, you aquiese to the reality it represents.

    The Republicans have been doing it for years and exporting their techniques.

  55. 55.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @JPL:

    Yes and I’m pretty obnoxious about it.

    Good, grandchildren are a parents revenge. The best thing about them is that your only job is to bring unqualified joy and endless love into their lives. Discipline? BAH! Eating healthy? HUMBUG! And if they do something really terrible and wrongwrongwrongwrong wrong and are put into timeout forever and a day? Your job is to go sit in the corner with them, hold them close, and let their tears mingle with yours because no matter what they do, you. love. them.

    As a father I was a real hardass, because I had to be. Now I am a complete marshmallow, because I can be.

  56. 56.

    JC

    At home in Wisconsin it is -23. I am in Bangkok visiting my mother-in-law where the high today was 92°. On the other hand the air quality here is abysmal. I haven’t seen this much pollution here before.

  57. 57.

    Baud

    I used to read Booman religiously, but now I only read him sporadically because I didn’t like how he allowed his site to be used in the 2016 primary. But I happened to come across this post yesterday:

    Not Overpromising on Health Care

    Apparently, when Kamala Harris goes all in for Medicare for All, it’s now time to be cautious and politically pragmatic.

    Not saying he’s wrong, but I am confused by his apparently new-found political realism.

  58. 58.

    satby

    @rikyrah: Even the post offices are closed in both Chicago and South Bend. Everything is closed here. And they called me yesterday to tell me the market won’t be open tomorrow (I didn’t go yesterday either). So just stay home and warm!

  59. 59.

    Baud

    @debbie: That’s a large part of it, but the other part is that some people who might otherwise support our agenda prioritize their hate above all else.

  60. 60.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @JPL: Not quite: Majority of Clemson’s black players declined Trump’s fast food reception, report says

    “It wasn’t like we had a team meeting or anything,” one of the team’s offensive stars said in the report. “Players were talking amongst each other but everybody was like: ‘I’m not going to that.’”

    A university spokesperson said in a statement that a total of 76 players, about two-thirds of the team’s 119-player roster for 2018, attended the White House reception on 14 January.

    But the players quoted said that only 15 of the team’s 57 black players made the trip – and 11 of those 15 were freshmen or sophomores who had very little playing time during the season and feared reprisals over their status with the team moving forward. Only six were even listed on the depth chart for the Tigers’ victory over the University of Alabama in the national title game on 7 January.

    As one of the team members explained: “Not saying anything against the players who went, but if you look at who went – freshmen and people fighting for playing time – you’ll see what I’m talking about.”

  61. 61.

    MagdaInBlack

    My corporate office is in Winnipeg, where its – 33, and its only -19 here in nw Chicagoland, so no sympathy for the peons.
    My corporate masters need their money, off I go.

  64. 64.

    WereBear

    @Amir Khalid: Likewise, Amir, when I lived in semi-tropical Florida the high heat and humidity attempted to murder me. I am far more adapted to Arctic Circle challenges than equatorial ones.

  65. 65.

    debbie

    @Baud:

    Agreed. I still can’t get over that Trump supporter who said she was disappointed in Trump because he hadn’t hurt the people she wanted him to hurt. JFC.

  66. 66.

    Baud

    @Viva BrisVegas:

    You can try to fight it, but you’ll never convince the majority of Americans that Dems are centrist as opposed to left, no matter how much actual lefties hate it.

  70. 70.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @debbie:

    I don’t think a ten-month-old Civic should be doing that.

    It shouldn’t be. I suspect a bad battery tho there could be other causes (loose connections, bad belt, bad alternator/regulator) If you’re feeling brave, you should go out and give it a try. Starters often crank slower in deep cold but work anyway, and that’s the measure of whether it is working or not.

  75. 75.

    poleaxedbyboatwork

    @Baud:

    You can try to fight it, but you’ll never convince the majority of Americans that Dems are centrist as opposed to left, no matter how much actual lefties hate it.

    If talking political parties, bigger prob ain’t convincing folks the Dems are centrist; bigger prob is the Very Serious Peeples and those they misinform won’t accept that the GOP *ain’t* centrist, at fucking all, they’re extremists and their enablers (which, in lieu of substantive intra-party opposition, amounts to the same thing).

    imo

    ETA: That Overton Window is a helluva drug. One of the reasons, incidentally, why I’m disinclined to take the advice of teh Booman’s of the world cited above. Go big and let them play defense for awhile. Dem policies for all their “oooh!scary!” representation in the media have the distinct advantage of being broadly popular. Play to that.

  76. 76.

    satby

    Jeezus… Just got an email notice that UPS will be delivering a package today ?. My gate is jammed shut with frozen snow.

  78. 78.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @debbie:

    she was disappointed in Trump because he hadn’t hurt the people she wanted him to hurt.

    And no doubt she shows up in church every Sunday where everybody tells her what a good Christian she is.

  79. 79.

    rikyrah

    @debbie:
    It’s so funny that you say balmy 20…
    Most people who don’t live in harsh winters don’t get that there is a world of difference between 10 and 20 degrees…10 with harsh winds can be brutal, while, you only need a hat and one scarf when it’s 20?

  80. 80.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Mary G:

    I must confess this is the first I’ve heard of Becerra, but he sounds like a great choice — both to deliver the Spanish-language SOTU response and as your AG.

  81. 81.

    debbie

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Thanks. I’m going to hold off trying until tomorrow. I don’t want to test it and then not drive it for a distance. I’m not driving anywhere — they haven’t even started plowing the streets yet!

  82. 82.

    germy

    @debbie:

    I still can’t get over that Trump supporter who said she was disappointed in Trump because he hadn’t hurt the people she wanted him to hurt.

    Well, Trump on the primary campaign trail said he’d hurt the big banks who were ripping us off, the pharmaceutical companies who were ripping us off, and the other republicans who wanted to take away our Social Security and Medicare. Maybe she means those people?

    Actually… nah.

  83. 83.

    Steeplejack

    One of the crosswords I do every morning is on the Minneapolis Star Tribune‘s website. It’s –27° there now. Stay warm, tundra jackals!

    A relatively balmy 20° here in NoVA this morning. But going down to 6° tonight!

  86. 86.

    debbie

    @rikyrah:

    I don’t do hats, so I can feel even a change of a couple of degrees. Though, hearing of this freeze, I reattached the hood of my coat, just in case I’ve lost my resilience.

  87. 87.

    satby

    @debbie: @OzarkHillbilly: I have had cars that were fine in normal cold weather that didn’t start in super cold, but started just fine again when it got a normal 0 or above temp. Ozark is probably right about what’s causing it, one of those cars had an electric harness that was very susceptible to ramp and cold.

  90. 90.

    poleaxedbyboatwork

    @germy:

    I want one of the female candidates to talk about grabbing men by the cock and balls. Just one time. It’s only fair.

    Stormy sez do that to Trump n yer gonna swear he’s a sheila.

  91. 91.

    JPL

    @OzarkHillbilly: So this is how they got the six number that I saw..
    Only six were even listed on the depth chart for the Tigers’ victory over the University of Alabama in the national title game on 7 January. It’s not surprising that the younger players would go, if they want to stay in good graces of the alumni. I’m a tad familiar with the alumni, and the makeup of the group.
    Thank you for the link.

  93. 93.

    Quinerly

    @Baud: Poco was on line earlier but he finds it hard to type while under the electric blanket with John Lennon, fearless rescue kitty, piled on top of the blankets and him.
    #dogsknowpolarvortexisoutthere
    #ihaznotwitter
    ?

  94. 94.

    joel hanes

    @Mustang Bobby:

    I don’t ever remember it being this cold when I lived there.

    In 1964 or ’65, it was just a little colder than this where I was living in North Iowa. I had a paper route, so I had to walk door to door for an hour each day, and for over a week, it never got above 20 degrees below F, and the coldest night went down to minus 32 F, still-air temperatures (wind chill index had not yet been developed).

    Others have posted anecdotes of it being nearly this cold in 1978, and I remember that I missed a lot of college classes that winter because my car would not start.

  97. 97.

    rikyrah

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    Someone here last night accurately described this clown, who is NOT a Democrat…

    Let me keep the tax cuts…
    Cut entitlements to handle the “deficit” , which is back to being a problem??
    And, you can have that liberal social stuff, as long as it doesn’t cost money …

    Phuck Outta Here ??

  99. 99.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @OzarkHillbilly: I read some analysis of the percentage of people who were psychopaths. In the general population , it’s fairly small, something like 2 or 3% if I recall correctly. In the prison population, it’s much higher, maybe 35%. In CEOs, it’s about double whatever the general population figure was. So it’s still low, but it’s higher than you’d expect, suggesting that being a psychopath might offer some advantages in becoming a CEO

  102. 102.

    Quinerly

    @poleaxedbyboatwork: mostly raven with the background on the song. If I had known it related to 9/11, I had forgotten that part. Honestly, I don’t think I ever knew that tidbit. Check out Knopfler’s new CD just out. It’s great.

  103. 103.

    glory b

    @Baud: So, they like our ideas, they just don’t like “us.”
    Maybe it might be that “people of color” thing.

  105. 105.

    Baud

    @poleaxedbyboatwork:

    bigger prob is the Very Serious Peeples and those they misinform won’t accept that the GOP *ain’t* centrist, at fucking all, they’re extremists and their enablers (which, in lieu of substantive intra-party opposition, amounts to the same thing).

    Agree.

    @Quinerly:

    Poco is smart. Maybe too smart.

  106. 106.

    Kathleen

    @Baud: Booman gets a resounding Ozark “blech” from me. Haven’t been to his site in 2 years and haven’t missed it one bit.

  107. 107.

    Baud

    @glory b: Yep. I’ve said that very same thing many times. People of color, fallen women, the icky gay, and the decent white guys who love them. They hate us all.

  108. 108.

    JPL

    @germy: The Washington Post has a good piece about Kamala Harris’ sex life.

    But we do talk about them in a different way. We talk about men abusing power. We talk about women not even deserving power. The distinction matters, because the conversation isn’t really about sex, it’s about legitimacy. It’s about who we think has earned the right to be successful, and what criteria we’ll invent, and who we’ll apply it to.

    The unique harm we cause when we dissect a powerful woman’s love life
    link

  109. 109.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @debbie:

    I don’t do hats,

    Heh. Every time I watch Game of Thrones and they are in the far freezing North, I start screaming at the TV: “PUT A HAT ON!!!!!” Yeah I know, putting a hat on would mess their pretty hair (lookin’ at you Jon Snow) and it’s only TV, but still

    PUT A FUCKING HAT ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  110. 110.

    WereBear

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I consider that percentage to be not necessarily accurate, on the low side. Trump is not a clinical psychopath, but he acts like one, so the amount of actual psychopathic incidence, and damage, is much higher in practice.

    I am pleased to see the surging realization of just how much money the very rich have been legally stealing from us and taking illegally from foreign interference. This HAS to be a game-changer.

  111. 111.

    Quinerly

    @rikyrah: waves back. Poco won’t come out from under the blankets for tail wags. He is convinced that the Polar Vortex has come for him personally (it’s all about Poco). JL in buried down at the foot of the bed. No meows. Stay warm.

  112. 112.

    PST

    @satby: Fortunately, Bernie and I are both well suited to the cold. She‘s built like a bear and I’m built like a walrus. We’ve each got our protective layer.

  113. 113.

    Kay

    The courthouse is closed until Friday, which is really extraordinary. They can’t move defendants around from place to place when it’s this cold. Last night my car went “mmm,mmm,mmm” which is the “too cold to start sound”, but then it did.
    I’m going to work but our two assistants are staying home.
    My middle son is working on a huge water pumping station – they brought 3 contractors in and their contract says they have to pay the electricians even if they can’t work because they could (theoretically!) be getting paid if they were working somewhere else and they tied up their time so he sat in a trailer and played cards all day yesterday.

  114. 114.

    poleaxedbyboatwork

    @Quinerly:

    Thank youuuuu!

    I ‘member as a young whelp in ’92 having a monster crush (unrequited, alas) onna young woman named Mishka when I was working up in Angle Inlet, Minnesota. Romeo and Juliet still stirs a certain fond associative train a mem’ry.

    The ridiculous part, looking back, is her younger sister, who was my age, was quite open to my clumsy fumbling charms, but — sometimes the heart wants what the heart wants, even when it’s not gonna happen.

  115. 115.

    Quinerly

    @Baud: he will start a six weeks campaign swing in NC next week. He says you “don’t call, you don’t write.” I think he has hired some staff.

  116. 116.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I saw that study too.

    In CEOs, it’s about double whatever the general population figure was. So it’s still low, but it’s higher than you’d expect,

    made me question it’s accuracy. I expect it to be about 20 times what the general population figure was. ;-)

  118. 118.

    Kathleen

    @debbie: Single digit in Cincy but wind not too bad surprisingly. We got dusting of snow which to me means no driving because I have to navigate steep hills and overpasses to get to work. Luckily I work downtown and bus stops in front of my condo so I was at work before 7. It’s not as bad out as I expected. Yet. I spent 6 years in St. Paul Mn but I’m out of practice.
    Batteries on Hondas I’ve owned don’t seem too durable. Good luck.

  119. 119.

    bemused

    It’s -31 now in NE MN not factoring in the wind, schools closed and no mail delivery for the whole state today.

  120. 120.

    raven

    @poleaxedbyboatwork:

    Conversation turns to another event whose effect on the world stage has been considerable, namely 9/11. Much of All the Road Running was written in the aftermath of the twin towers tragedy, so it is unsurprising that several of its songs reflect upon its ramifications. Knopfler talks of reading pieces by Martin Amis and Ian McEwan, both of which he found affecting. “I remember the McEwan piece homing in on people in the twin towers using their mobiles; that final phone call home to say: ‘I love you.’ If there’s anything positive to take from 9/11, that expression of love is surely it. That, rather than what happened next: another wave of violence.

    “The song ‘If This Is Goodbye’ definitely came out of that. If 9/11 hadn’t happened, I probably wouldn’t have written ‘This Is Us’ either. That’s a song looking at two ordinary people’s lives, the Polaroid pictures and the drawings by their kids on the fridge. There are bruised people on this record, and Em has a way of inhabiting those characters and making them real.”

  121. 121.

    OldDave

    @Quinerly: Another thumbs up on both the Knopfler/Harris album (“All The Road Running”) and Knopfler’s latest (“Down The Road Wherever”).

  123. 123.

    Jeffro

    I just wanna say quickly (before FYWP eats my comment again) that Kathleen Parker’s column in today’s Post is breathtaking in its both-sides stupidity and backhanded slaps at the dirty hippies. No need to link or quote extensively, here’s just a couple quick GRRRRS!

  126. 126.

    raven

    @Immanentize: Hell I don’t go there unless I absolutely have too. My niece’s hubby is in the “big ass banner covering boilings” business but I have not heard from him so I guess he doesn’t need anything from us.

  128. 128.

    Quinerly

    @poleaxedbyboatwork: I have been known to listen to Romeo and Juliet at least 6 times in a row. Very convenient now with Alexa and her amazing abilities to be tied in to almost every CD I ever bought. ? It’s like she really knows me. When I want a laugh, there’s “Alexa, pull my finger.” Sunday, I told her I had had a terrible day. She had some sweet suggestions. I’ve gone a bit off track but Alexa knows how good listening to Knopfler makes me feel. ?

  130. 130.

    Betty Cracker

    @rikyrah: You are absolutely correct about that difference in temperature, as I learned during the few years I lived in Boston ages ago. I seem to recall a multi-day stretch when it didn’t get above 10 degrees (locals said that was unusual for Boston). I was appalled to learn we were still expected to show up for work!

    I also learned that having warm, dry feet is the difference between tolerable and abject misery in cold weather. But mostly, I learned that I am not suited for such conditions. I’ll gladly endure the heat, humidity and crazies to escape that bone-chilling cold. Y’all stay warm!

  133. 133.

    Aleta

    (Rolling Stone, from a NYT report)
    …
    The NRA is attempting to create distance between CEO Wayne LaPierre and the NRA officers who traveled to Moscow in 2015, at the invitation of criminal Russian influence agent Maria Butina and Alexander Torshin — the sanctioned now-former Russian central banker described in court documents as her handler — where the NRA members met with top members of Vladimir Putin’s government.

    William A. Brewer III, a lawyer who represents the NRA, tells the Times: “Wayne was opposed to the trip.” Allan Cors, who was president of the gun group at the time of the 2015 meeting in Moscow, underscores this same talking point: “Wayne expressed concerns about this trip and suggested that I not participate. Wayne did not want any misconception that this was an official trip,” Cors added. “Frankly, I had similar concerns.”

    Such concerns, oddly, did not prevent the trip from taking place. And the Times reports the NRA paid for at least some travel expenses. The NRA delegation included first vice president Pete Brownell (whose allegedly unsanctioned participation didn’t prevent his rise to become NRA president in 2017); Joe Gregory, who chairs the Golden Ring of Freedom, the NRA’s elite club for million-dollar lifetime donors; and past president David Keene, who had forged the NRA’s close ties to Moscow, visiting in 2013 to declare: “There are no peoples that are more alike than Americans and Russians.”
    …
    The Times report emphasizes that the NRA officials who traveled to Russia had business interests there: “Mr. Brownell had expanded his family-owned gun accessory retailer, Brownells, into Russia in 2015, before the trip, licensing its name to a local company and collecting a percentage of sales.” Outdoor Channel CEO Jim Liberatore, who joined the NRA junket, reportedly pursued, with Butina, the idea of signing Vladimir Putin to a reality show on his network.

    While the NRA-Russia connection has reportedly reemerged as a focus Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe, the Times indicates congressional interest also remains high. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) tells the paper that the GOP majority in the last congress stymied attempts to probe the issue: “We were really not able to determine how the Russians used the N.R.A. as a back channel or look into allegations that the Russians may have funneled money through the N.R.A. to influence the election,” he says. “Those issues remain of deep interest to us.” Ron Wyden (D-OR), the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, tells the paper: “The prospect of N.R.A. or N.R.A. officials abusing nonprofit status to work with a hostile regime and undermine our democracy is central to my investigation.”

    `

  134. 134.

    poleaxedbyboatwork

    @raven:

    Thank you for that. When I heard it cold, first time (I fucking adore that feeling), it evoked alla my own touchstones. The added context only augments it.

  135. 135.

    Ladyraxterinok

    @OzarkHillbilly:Germany has had a ‘co-determination law since 1976. It mandates that workers elect about half of of a company’s board of directors. (Exact make’up depends on size of company.)This means a company can’t just decide to close, move out of country, etc, without major input from its workers and by extension the people in the community where it’s located.

    An official in a company engaged in a joint venture with a German company complained bitterly to me about this law.

  137. 137.

    Jeffro

    @Jeffro:KP:

    While the media (including this columnist) displays a Pavlovian response to the scent of fresh meat, Democrats have been shrieking like cartoon girls when a rat scampers past.

    Yeah…we’re just ‘cartoon girls’…not sensible folks with enough knowledge about how 3rd-party candidacies tend to siphon votes from the side closest. (KP then goes on…in the very next paragraph!…to note this exact same thing. But I guess we’re just ‘shrieking cartoon girls’)

    She then goes on to moan that the Perot candidacy gave us endless tales of the Clenis. No really. Kathleen, this fixation of yours…

    But the really irritating part is here:

    Who, pray, will be the non-Trump?

    By all rights, it should be a woman of color to counter Trump’s grab-’em-by-the-[whatever] misogyny and his dog-whistling to Jim Crow. Sen. Kamala D. Harris (Calif.) would be the obvious choice given those criteria. But as telegenic, experienced and charismatic as she is, Harris’s debt-free-college and Medicare-for-all positions would be hard sells in a general election.

    Enter Schultz. He’s richer than Trump; as white as Trump; a man. You see the problem. But he does have antidotal qualities. He’s polite, smart, self-made, articulate, calm, rational — and a centrist, like millions of voters. Given that the two major political parties have been rendered ridiculous by their bases

    1) “debt-free-college” and “Medicare-for-all” are quite popular, thanks. We get that you don’t want your already-too-low taxes raised, KP

    2) EVERY SINGLE ONE OF OUR CANDIDATES (the real ones, anyway, not the Tulsis or Wilmers) are “polite, smart, self-made (you don’t have to be in business to be self-made!), articulate, calm, and rational! Much more calm! and rational! than me! when idiots like Parker try to pretend otherwise.

    3) And then there is, “both parties have been rendered ridiculous by their bases” – GAAAAAAHHHH!

    Where is my “NO MORE ‘BOTH SIDES’!” t-shirt?

  139. 139.

    Baud

    @Aleta:

    Such concerns, oddly, did not prevent the trip from taking place.

    He was only the CEO. What power did he have to stop it?

    @Ladyraxterinok:

    That explains why Germany is such a backwater nation.

  140. 140.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I told him he should use the time to study for his fire alarm certification exam because I can’t help myself. I can’t stop nagging them even when they’re grown.

    I have a business idea for you- online test prep courses for state safety licensing in the trades. You’ll make millions of dollars from home and in your spare time :)

    They just memorize the code cold, from a book. It’s barbaric.

  141. 141.

    joel hanes

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    expect it to be about 20 times

    They were tallying psychopathy, which is kinda non-functional.

    I’d be right with you on the percentage of sociopaths.
    To be scrupfair, the notion of “fiduciary duty” pretty much guarantees that any public corporation willl at least flirt with sociopathy, if not marry it outright, and CEOs embody that mandate.

  142. 142.

    raven

    @JPL: I don’t get this “one million” people shit. I think it’s a ploy to keep people from going down there.

  143. 143.

    OldDave

    @Quinerly:

    I have been known to listen to Romeo and Juliet at least 6 times in a row.

    We had a similar experience on a drive from Florida to St. Louis once. Car radio was playing MP3s alphabetically and we heard Romeo and Juliet – the original, the Indigo Girls version, and Mark’s from the 2015 Tracker tour in order. Nice.

  144. 144.

    Quinerly

    @OldDave: ?
    I’m sure you’ve heard the Knopfler song on the Van Morrison Duets CD. I guess it came out in the last 3 years. Van’s new CD is also excellent. I think he’s putting out a new one about every 10 months. I have his complete catalog. Hard to keep the titles straight. His country flavored CD about 10 years ago is fantastic (cover of “My Bucket’s Got Hole In It” ?) Van threw in a couple of his originals. Blended seamlessly. I remember saying, “Who did that one?” on first listen. It was his but sounded like something I thought I may have known by another artist from 60 years ago. Can’t think of the name of the album right now.

  146. 146.

    Aleta

    @raven: Never knew that. I like the effects in his voice when singing with her. His voice is so sensitive anyway, and extra seems to come out.

  150. 150.

    Quinerly

    @OldDave: here’s a laugh for you. Totally different kind of song… But my 6 repeat driving song is Kristy McCall’s “In These Shoes?” So tragic that we lost her so soon. Some woman! Interesting in real life. I really picture her in that song. I want to be her in that song.?

  151. 151.

    JPL

    @raven: Neither do I. The local news gave that number last night and I assume it’s a way to say see the taxes you paid to build the stadium were worth it.

  152. 152.

    joel hanes

    Two observations about dealing with extreme cold :

    – cotton clothing is worse than useless. People wear cotton in hot climates because it holds moisture, and the moisture conducts heat right through the fabric, as well as cooling via evaporation. Polyester fleece is a grand invention; before that, we used poly fiberfill to good affect, and wool still works well. Three loose layers are needed.

    – head and neck and hands and feet. Boots and shoes must be dry, and no cotton socks. But for most people, the greatest heat loss is through the head and neck. Any sporting-goods store will have a cheap pair of ski-style gloves if you need dexterity, but mittens are much much warmer. WEAR A FUCKING WOOL OR POLY FLEECE STOCKING CAP IF ITS BELOW MINUS 10. You want to die for your hairstyle? A nice woolen scarf can be pulled up to mask everything between the eyes and the collar when the cold makes your face hurt.

  154. 154.

    Ramalama

    @joel hanes: I had a paper route … but in Chicagoland. And I remember it being so cold that I started spitting (which I never do normally) just to see it freeze and then crack on impact with the sidewalk. I think that was at -40.

    Fun fact, -40 is the number where Celsius and Fahrenheit meet.

    I’m now living in Quebec province where the snow has now reached my naval. It was -23C about 2 weeks ago – all week – and we just stayed inside burning stacks of wood. My last dog, a Malamute, would have been in heaven with those temps, but my little bitey dog doesn’t last long out there so walks can and must be short, thank goodness.

  155. 155.

    ArchTeryx

    Still terribly bummed about Schlemazel. I lost my oldest friend to a sudden appearance of cancer (with him, it was esophageal), and lost other friends to stomach cancer (same sudden appearance, rapid decline and death).

    I’m just this lurker that had his 15 minutes of fame when it looked like Trump and the Repubs were going to succeed in stripping health insurance from me and millions like me, condemning me to sure and slow death. If I become a tenth as beloved as Schlemazel around here I’ll be doing extremely well.

    The fact I’m posting this a week after his memorial thread should tell you just how behind I get.

    But sometimes, the jackals give me a little hope in what often seems like hopeless times. Being a PhD in the bioscience and seemingly forever stuck in an office assistant job (that you don’t even need a GED to get) makes the day to day grind terribly depressing. As does the political news for the most part. But as long as this site’s around, I’ll still be here, lurking quietly and watching the ebb and flow, writing my short stories and hoping against hope for better times.

  156. 156.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay:

    They just memorize the code cold, from a book.

    Interesting. I had to take Journeyman upgrade classes every year to keep up my certifications. (not many, iirc just one safety and usually just one other for stuff like rigging)

  158. 158.

    Quinerly

    @raven: ?
    Let’s all start throwing a little music in all morning threads. What say you? Try to set a nice mood before we face the onslaught of our Trump filled days. Even if only two or three song suggestions get posted…..Just a thought.

  162. 162.

    OzarkHillbilly

    A grateful letter from Dr Seuss to the former college classmate who stopped The Cat in the Hat author from burning his first children’s book manuscript is set to be auctioned later this week.

    Seuss, whose real name was Theodor Seuss Geisel, was an advertising artist who had written his first tale for children, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, in 1936. It had been rejected by dozens of publishers when he bumped into Mike McClintock. As he writes in a 1957 letter to his old friend from Dartmouth College: “You picked me off Madison Ave with a manuscript that I was about to burn in my incinerator because nobody would buy it. And you not only told me how to put Mulberry Street together properly … (as you did later with the 500 Hats), but after you’d sweated this out with me, giving me the best and only good information I have ever had on the construction of a book for this mysterious market, you even took the stuff on the road and sold it.”

    Seuss retold the story more fully in the book The Annotated Cat, writing of how McClintock asked him what he had under his arm. “I said, ‘A book that no one will publish. I’m lugging it home to burn.’ Then I asked Mike, ‘What are you doing?’ He said, ‘This morning I was appointed juvenile editor of Vanguard Press, and we happen to be standing in front of my office; would you like to come inside?’ So, we went inside, and he looked at the book and took me to the president of Vanguard Press. Twenty minutes later we were signing contracts. That’s one of the reasons I believe in luck. If I’d been going down the other side of Madison Avenue, I would be in the dry-cleaning business today!”

  164. 164.

    Procopius

    Goes to show it was terribly unfortunate the first signs we observed of climate change was the overall warming, so it was called “global warming.” I’m glad the consensus adopted the more accurate “climate change,” but the mouth breathers don’t get it. Purposely, some of them. It’s like Christie in New Jersey, killing the Hudson Tunnel deal because “it’s too expensive, we can’t afford it.” Five or ten years from now when the tunnel collapses it’s going to be a LOT more expensive to fix, and rail traffic on the east coast will be halted until it is, adding to the economic losses.

  166. 166.

    Ruckus

    It’s not difficult to be liked when you do stuff that people like and that helps them and you are not an ass. All those names that Zeddy listed in the last tweet quoted? Every one of them made things worse for most people. Everyone of them is an ass. Not difficult to hate them. The people that hate Nancy P. are people who hate everything. They didn’t really like Zeddy’s list either. They identified with them, that’s not the same thing.

  167. 167.

    Ruckus

    It’s not difficult to be liked when you do stuff that people like and that helps them and you are not an ass. All those names that Zeddy listed in the last tweet quoted? Every one of them made things worse for most people. Everyone of them is an ass. Not difficult to hate them. The people that hate Nancy P. are people who hate everything. They didn’t really like Zeddy’s list either. They identified with them, that’s not the same thing.

  168. 168.

    Ruckus

    @Procopius:
    It’s difficult to look forward when your entire outlook is a desire to live in the past and believe that time has a reverse. Also when one’s head is firmly lodged in one’s hind quarters, just seeing the future is slightly more problematic.

  169. 169.

    Aleta

    @raven: wow that’s beautiful. Never heard it, thanks very much !

    I have a relationship with him. In the 80s the only US-UK music I could get on the radio was transmitted from AF Radio. It was all over great. They played dire straits a lot.

  172. 172.

    OldDave

    @Quinerly:

    I’m sure you’ve heard the Knopfler song on the Van Morrison Duets CD

    I think so. I’ve certainly heard Mark and Van singing “The Last Laugh” on the Sailing to Philly album.

  174. 174.

    Quinerly

    @raven: actually, it might have been here. I lurked since Cole’s conversion and didn’t even get that involved in reading the comments except to find interesting links. Told this story before (but I thought it was a Saturday night thread) I stumbled on a link Ozark put up regarding music. Clicked on it and the guys he was posting about were St. Louis musician friends. It became a quest for me to find out who Ozark was b/c it was obvious we had traveled in the same circles at some point. Since I had never been a commenter, didn’t really understand when threads were dead they were really dead. Like a fool, I kept going back to that thread looking for Ozark. (I had never signed up to make comments and had been around 10 plus years, I signed up). Somehow kept missing him on other threads. Was at the Venice Cafe one Sat, pulled up the thread and showed it to my friend John Higgins who was in Ozark’s video, saying “We have to know this guy, OzarkHillbilly.” I was on a mission. My bartender friend and mosaic Goddess (Red) was there. She was curious. When I finally met Ozark for the Woman’s March the day after the inauguration, it all came together…how many mutual friends and acquaintances. Small, small world. And, see, the only reason Poco has achieved this level of fame is because of this here blog and his mom stalking Ozark over a music post. I doubt I would have ever first commented but for that. We can debate if that is a good thing. And, Ozark, Red said “hi.” She has outdone herself on this bathroom. Now she is putting a copper glaze on the grout. ?

  175. 175.

    Aleta

    You wanna know what happiness is? In his eye lives a hunter’s gleam
    Something to look forward to, this cat’s gonna get the cream
    Skin of a mango is so smooth , smoother than the devil
    Cut it, slice it, chop it up to the rhythm of a cockney rebel
    (Drum solo) (Brass) ……………

  177. 177.

    Ladyraxterinok

    @JPL: I remember Bill O’Reilly was grilling Tavis Smiley in the late 90s. Saying stuff like racism doesn’t seem to be so bad–he (ie Smiley) sure seemed to be doing ok, nice suit he had on and all.

    As I recall, Smiley said you seem to think I didn’t earn my money; that I have no right to a good suit.

    Didn’t stop ol’ Bill even a minute!

  178. 178.

    JPL

    @ArchTeryx: Schlemazel deserved a better diagnosis. I’m pleased that his niece let us know though. You know, this is the place you can come to for hugs also.

  180. 180.

    bemused

    @danielx:

    Our house is making snapping noises too but expected at -31.
    Worst extreme cold wave I’ve ever experienced was late Jan/early Feb 1996. Temps didn’t rise above -30 in the day for several days and lowest temp was -60 overnight. Tower MN made national news when some people camped out in a tent outside the local casino on that night. I never want to see those temps again.

  181. 181.

    Jeffro

    Needs its own thread: via twitter this morning, trumpov is openly insulting the US intelligence chiefs (and by extension, the entire US intelligence community) who testified to Congress earlier this week, calling them “naive” and that they should “go back to school”. His own intelligence agencies. Publicly.

    According to he who knows everything, Iran actually IS dangerous, North Korea is NOT, ISIS is destroyed, and well, you know…

    Whenever you’re ready, IC…

  182. 182.

    Quinerly

    @Aleta: there’s a bit of a problem I need to tell you about. We’ll keep it just between us as I don’t want to blow my reputation on BJ. It has been said by a few, in certain circles that I dance like some woman named Elaine.

  185. 185.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    A person could make them good. Not a rip off. Brute memorization is hard and boring – it doesn’t have to be so horrible. Don’t make this a Betsy DeVos multi level marketing type operation or I will be forced to expose you here in the comments on Balloon Juice.

    It should be a trades person too- if not it will be someone awful like Michael Milken. The Dell CEO who whines about taxes. Schultz. Shudder.

  186. 186.

    Aleta

    @Ruckus: I was thinking along those lines in general this morning. Make it better, stay still for awhile, just don’t make it worse.

  194. 194.

    MomSense

    @debbie:

    When it’s really cold I wear wool long johns under my layers with the outside layer being a thick wool sweater. It is much warmer than all the synthetic kinds of tech coats and fleeces. Also real wool, not acrylic blend or superwash, has lanolin so the snow and ice do not permeate the wool. Nature is pretty fucking awesome at outerwear.

  200. 200.

    mad citizen

    @Jeffro: And the 25th Amendment outcome rises in probability. Are these the five outcomes of this administration: 25th Amendment, impeachment and conviction, resignation, death, serves out term? Am I missing anything? Myself, I’d like to see #s 1, 2 and 3 converge at the same time.

  201. 201.

    Ladyraxterinok

    @Baud: A student in a business German course said he finally understood why German products have such high reputations. It’s the word order in the German sentence!!

    You have to wait for the end of the sentence to understand what’s being said. Ie, English ‘.I want to buy a book’ is literally in German ‘ I want a book to buy’.

    The German sentence that starts ‘I want a book’ could end up as

    *I want a book.

    *I want a book to sell.

    *I want a book to donate.

    *I want a book to eat.

    You have to pay attn all the way to the end of the sentence. The student claimed the structure of the language trained German speakers to focus on a task/project until it was completed. Therefore they didn’t goof off while building some product. Fun slant on source of German manufacturing success!

  202. 202.

    japa21

    So it’s cold enough that even the post office is not delivering mail today in the Chicago area. So wind rain and snow, no problem. -55 wind chills? That’s a problem. I don’t blame them.

  203. 203.

    MomSense

    @poleaxedbyboatwork:

    Last night I went to hear the Portland Symphony Orchestra. The first piece they performed was the Fantasy Overture. So beautiful. We have a new conductor and I’m thrilled with how the orchestra played.

  204. 204.

    Ladyraxterinok

    @OzarkHillbilly: Also interesting–Germany got universal health coverage in the late 19th century!

    The big-wigs were scared siilly over the increasing power of the socialists, so they decided to pre-emptively take away a major socialist demand!

  206. 206.

    Kay

    @japa21:

    It’s something else. The 40 seconds it took me to get from the car to unlock and open office door the 2 inches of finger exposed by fingerless gloves were aching and bright red. It’s a whole different category. It’s just how fast you get really cold! They’d have to warm up every 5 minutes.

  207. 207.

    Ladyraxterinok

    @Quinerly: Really dating myself– any Everly brothers song, King of the Road, The Twelth of Never (Johnny Mathis), When the Saints Go Marching in, Man in a Raincoat, Summertime from Porgy and Bess. When You Walk Though a Storm from Carosel sp?

  208. 208.

    poleaxedbyboatwork

    @MomSense:

    Oh, I do envy you. Ain’t much by Pyotr Ilyich I don’t like and that’ns lush (same ardent feeling for Mussorgsky n Rimsky-Korsakov n Dvorak n J.S. Bach).

    Tastes is subjective course, and it’s funny how you might respond to one thing n notta another. Take Mozart for instance. When he’s being expressive (e.g. Requiem), he’s so bang-on soul-nourishing beautiful I wanna weep. But a lotta his chamber stuff, for me, don’t start the motor.

    @stibbert:

    It’s a dandy, no doubt. Emmylou’s got such warmth and yearning in her voice and such poignant phrasing. (Plus, she’s hot as fuck!)

    Oops. Did I just say that out loud?

  210. 210.

    Aleta

    @MomSense: What’s the scoop on cat Grace? (Do you know if, in the past when she was relaxing with your friend, she would at times emerge from her shyness?)

  211. 211.

    Quinerly

    @raven: I seem to remember it as a semi regular Sat night music thread or maybe a Sat night open thread that turned into a music thread. As I said, I only read the comments for links (you guys were coming off the Bernie Wars and even though I had been around reading since beginning, thank Sully, I was turned off by how ugly the threads had gotten). Kept going back for days to that thread looking for Ozark. Silly I know. I then made my some of my first comments that anybody read (unless, there were some late comers to that thread) when Comey had his presser right before the election. I posted while I was watching in real time with something like “He’s going to indict her.” Which if you had been on the sofa with me and had seen the look on my face, you would have seen the look of horror and my tuning up to cry look. Corner Stone jumped on me accusing me of being a troll. I tried to explain. Just went back to mostly lurking until Poco pushed me to make him famous on his 7week trip where I chauffeured him for 7000 miles all over NM, AZ, and Utah in 2017. Alain started the On The Road thread because Poco was hijacking the AM threads with news of where he was. At least that’s what Poco says.

  213. 213.

    Quinerly

    @stibbert: actually, that’s my favorite one off of that CD. Love the lyrics, love the story it tells. It’s a damn near perfect song to me.

  217. 217.

    MomSense

    @Aleta:

    She only came out to see me twice in five years and I’m a cat person. I’m going to send AL a photo and some info. She is also a polydactyl- so her paws are half the size of her tiny body. She is perfectly housebroken and doesn’t have any destructive habits so she should be easy in the right home.

  218. 218.

    Quinerly

    @JPL: if you are talking about Red’s work on this walk out basement apartment, when she’s all done. She has been experimenting with different techniques, materials, grout, glazes here since 1995. The kitchen we put is great and showcases her talents. This bathroom that we are finishing up is all slate and marble (with eventually a copper penny floor that I’m 3500 pennies into). We have given it a steampunk look with the exposed copper pipes. Made really neat copper towel racks out of copper pipes and fittings. It’s like nothing else in my 1880’s Victorian, but it is an above ground walk out basement with windows and lots of exposed limestone walls. So totally different space. I’m crazy obsessed about the project now over a year in. Great friend that did the construction work and helped me with not making mistakes with layout. Started as an AirBnB project. Now I want to live in it and rent the other 3 levels. ? Thanks for the interest. Jackals that visit Soulard in St. Louis will get a discount.

  219. 219.

    Ruckus

    @ArchTeryx:
    As much as medicine has improved in the last 50-60 years, and it’s improved a dramatic amount, it is still often an educated guessing game. There was little evidence of my cancer, other than my age. But it was there and there was a lot of it, meaning it had been there for while. My sister’s cancer was in remission twice but came back a third time. Docs couldn’t pin point it to know what to do so they did exploratory surgery. Opened her up, then just started sewing her back up. The reason they couldn’t pin point it was that it was everywhere. She lived a comfortable, stoned 7 days in hospice. Medicine had done everything it could, it wasn’t enough. Docs want to cure you, they want to find out the problem and find a solution. Sometimes they can’t.

  220. 220.

    Quinerly

    @JPL: we leave next week for NC. I have put off finishing up clearing out the house I grew up in since my mother’s death. My dad built it in ’63 so lots of memories. Time to face what I need to do… POD rented. Been doing it in little bites for too long. Thanks for asking.

  222. 222.

    Quinerly

    @poleaxedbyboatwork: I’ll brag a bit. One year when Emmylou played at Jazz Fest some drunk 20 plus year old guy came up to me in the crowd and asked if I was Emmylou. It’s the hair. I started graying at 17. My boyfriend at the time got a kick out of the kid and started messing with him at the Fest. Winding him up that I was Emmylou. Making up all these stories. Boyfriend was Emmylou’s age. I am much younger. ?

  223. 223.

    WaterGirl

    @debbie: That pisses me off every single time I see that photo, and the media seems to use it nearly every time they talk about Trump and Nancy Pelosi.

    I vented about this here last week – I am completely certain that was no accident – that was a power move on Trump’s part. He is a pig in every possible way.

    When my dad died, my godmother sent a single red flower as a boutonniere with a card that read: To a true gentleman. That’s the kind of man I was raised by, and it disgusts me that this cretin resides in the white house.

  224. 224.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Ruckus:

    Docs want to cure you, they want to find out the problem and find a solution. Sometimes they can’t.

    And sometimes it’s because they are complete idiots. My neighbor died of lung cancer. He’d been suffering from shortness of breath for months. For months I heard of these strange diagnostic tests (including scoping his esophagus!!!) the Doc was ordering for R thinking to myself “I just don’t know enuf.”

    Finally I asked, “How’d your EKG go? What did the chest x-rays show?”
    “EKG? Chest Xrays?”

    Had NOT done either. What 2 things are the main causes of shortness of breath?
    HEART/LUNG! HEART/LUNG! HEART/LUNG! HEART/LUNG! HEART/LUNG!

    They are the very first things one investigates and that idiot Doc was scoping his digestive system.

  226. 226.

    Quinerly

    @poleaxedbyboatwork: all great. Love Randy Newman. He plays that every Jazz Fest in NOLA when he is there. Especially poignant the Jazz Fest at Katrina. Can’t remember if he was there that April after Katrina or the April the next year. But boy, oh boy, did Bruce put on a show that first Jazz Fest after Katrina. Still gives me goose bumps thinking about it.

  228. 228.

    WaterGirl

    @rikyrah: @Baud: I roll my eyes an awful lot when I read Booman. So often what he writes is discouraging, and it is often too cautious. What really makes me crazy is that his headlines — and he surely writes his own — take the most negative view of all.

  231. 231.

    WaterGirl

    @ArchTeryx: In case you’re not aware of this, people brought up your name multiple times last week, wondering how you are doing and hoping for an update.

  232. 232.

    WaterGirl

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    …writing of how McClintock asked him what he had under his arm. “I said, ‘A book that no one will publish. I’m lugging it home to burn.’ Then I asked Mike, ‘What are you doing?’ He said, ‘This morning I was appointed juvenile editor of Vanguard Press, and we happen to be standing in front of my office; would you like to come inside?’ So, we went inside, and he looked at the book and took me to the president of Vanguard Press. Twenty minutes later we were signing contracts. That’s one of the reasons I believe in luck. If I’d been going down the other side of Madison Avenue, I would be in the dry-cleaning business today!”

    That is such a great story.

  233. 233.

    WaterGirl

    @Aleta: Last I heard, Imm was still considering Grace, but I don’t know exactly where things stand now.

    Sounds like you might be giving some thought to Grace, too?

  234. 234.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @WaterGirl: A while back my brother and his wife came for a wkend visit. Her daughter and 2 yr old son came with. He had been repeatedly warned not to climb the stairs to our loft office by himself (steep). Finally he did it again and this time… Well, everybody was yelling at him: Mama, MeeMaw, Pawpaw, MickMick (my wife). Everybody but me. The poor little guy was crushed, absolutely desolate, so I picked him up and sat him on my lap as he heaved tears of sorrow and snuggled deep into my arms and I told him it was OK, that I, still loved him, that I would protect him from all those mean Meanies, and I gave him a cookie and we snuggled for almost a half hour.

    Mama, MeeMaw, Pawpaw, and MickMick all hated my guts but tough patooties, I’m a PawPaw too and I know what’s really important!

  235. 235.

    WaterGirl

    @OzarkHillbilly: Poor baby. I would be crying, too, if everyone in my life was yelling at me at the same time, and I have significantly more coping skills than a 2-year-old. Sweet boy snuggling with his grandpa, a nice memory for both of you. He may not have a distinct memory of that even by the time he’s 5 or 10, but the connection will still be there at a deeper level.

  236. 236.

    MomSense

    @Aleta:

    I don’t know. I fell asleep when it was discussed in that thread and never made it back.

    She’s an exclusively indoor kitty and I don’t know whether she has been to the vet or not but I know her family would do a complete vet check and shots. They would be sonrelieved to find her a home.

  237. 237.

    MomSense

    @ArchTeryx:

    Hey you. I’m so happy to see you here. I have been worrying and hoping you are ok. I hear you about the grind- blech as Ozark says.

  238. 238.

    MomSense

    @poleaxedbyboatwork:

    You are going to be super envious when I tell you that they also played Scheherazade last night. Our concert master played it exquisitely – as did all the soloists and orchestra. It was one of those performances met by absolute silence for a long time followed by rapturous applause and standing ovation. It is such seductive music.

  240. 240.

    poleaxedbyboatwork

    @Quinerly:

    Ha! Funny. Lord love a woman with magnanimous age parameters!

    Re: age disparities

    Like to treat my and others’ ages as largely irrelevant (apart from the, you know, regrettable inevitability of dying part). Seldom ask anyone how old they are cuz don’t particularly care. But always, always, always you can tell the young at heart, and irrespective of whatever indignity the ravages of time might befall my ambulatory husk, wanna ever retain that sense a child-like curiosity, wonder and play. Part a what makes life vital, for me anyway.

    Puts me to mind of a woman I once knew who was older (to me, then) and had that winsome playful quality. Was in Deutschland in ’93 n was a fasching (pre-Lent, like Mardi Gras/Carnivale) festival in Kaiserslautern. Met a woman who was nearing sixty, I was in my early twenties. The more time I spent talking with her, the more I enjoyed her company, funny, smart, beautiful, till I started thinking to myself: “You know, I’m purty fucking attracted to her.” And, as chance would have it, the feeling was mutual, tho it took a fair bit of repartee and flirtatious coaxing to bring her round to what she initially considered an utterly ridiculous idea (I ain’t never been shy). At that age, I expect I was more known for enthusiasm than ability, but I will freely admit she taught me things which have served me well through the years. And she was a helluva lotta fun to be with. So here’s to you, Margot.

    ‘Member the next morn, over omellettes (w/a a fucking fabulous sauce I ain’t never had the equal of; wisht I woulda asked what it was) inna restaurant, her son droppt in by chance. He was good bit older’n I was, too (and altho attractive, I had no innerest in sleeping with him, so he was off the hook). And I remember Margot smiled and sheepishly *blushed* when she introduced me as her son. (Her son! To her son! Whoops!)

    Then she got flustered and blusht s’more and corrected herself and stammer-said I was her friend. (Finally my boat drifted into harbor inna safe mooring!)

    Twain quote some like: Peeps is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to.

  241. 241.

    noname

    @ArchTeryx: I am glad to see you here and think of you with kindness. Stuck in the same grind you are and equally depressed about the state of the world.

  242. 242.

    poleaxedbyboatwork

    @joel hanes:

    It’s bein a little longer, I’ma save it (with Pip-like great expectations) for when wifi’s free at the co-op. Loves me some Holst Planets, some am very curious to hear one by him I ain’t never heard of, much less heard. Thank you muchly, very kind.

  243. 243.

    poleaxedbyboatwork

    @MomSense:

    You are going to be super envious when I tell you that they also played Scheherazade last night. Our concert master played it exquisitely – as did all the soloists and orchestra. It was one of those performances met by absolute silence for a long time followed by rapturous applause and standing ovation. It is such seductive music.

    You read my mind (course, I ain’t exactly a sphynx). I’m starting to think this is some kinda musical name-drop torture!

    Gotta arts festival here in Sitka, usually costs me a fair amount a money to attend, not cuz it’s expensive for tix, exactly, but more it’s atta time when I oughtta making some mun fishing. But — fuck it, you know? Kinda resent the idea a being a butler to a buncha jewels of the sea sometimes, so on occassion will tell my “fiduciary duty” to fuck right off.

    One a them times we hadda cellist (forget his name, but he was great; I guess he was sorta world-renowned but nothing sticks for long much in my brain pan anymore). And there was this big-boned Russian gal who played one a the four movements from Sheherazade. Like Mussorgsky’s Pictures atta Exhibition, you *can* play it onna piano, but it’s just so much more lush and rich and sumptuous when it’s orchestrally done.

    But: open mind, n alla that. Well, this gal played with such brio and verve and lusty passion, her enthusiasm and passion more’n made up for any misgivings I mighta had about her playing it on the piano. Got to a certain point where I’s lost innit and I couldn’t imagine it — then — any other way.

    She rocked out to Sheherazade, and I loved it.

  244. 244.

    J R in WV

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    We have had diesel cars and trucks since 1978. Block heaters to keep the engine a little warmer than ambient temps are the secret to driving those cars in severe weather, down in the single digits or below zero.

    Long ago in my home town, which is 2600 elevation, my uncle, who went to college in NE back in the 30s, built a gadget with a piece of gutter downspout and a lightbulb to warm things under the hood, also drove a Saab, never had trouble due to below zero temps.

    When away from home, we would start the diesels up every few hours when we couldn’t plug in the block heater, which they had from the dealer. Mostly VWs starting with out first new car ever, a ’78 white rabbit with a 90 hp diesel, slow, but 55 mpg way back then.

  245. 245.

    poleaxedbyboatwork

    [sticks head up, surveys the battlements and reviews the carnage of teh dead thread, declares in mock triumph]

    poleaxe the dumbaxe, killer of threads!

    [speaking to self]

    Ah, well. The verities, may they be evergreen. Usually am last to discover the movable feast done changed venue.

    [to all]

    G’day all you kind peeples and silly gooses.

  246. 246.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Ladyraxterinok: Old story/legend spozedly from an interwar conference where every nation brought their own interpreters. German delegate making a speech; British interpreter delivering a running translation in the ear of the UK delegate.

    Abruptly interpreter falls silent. German continues to speak. This goes on for half a minute or so. British delegate elbows interpreter in the ribs & hisses, Well come on man, what’s he saying? Interpreter replies:

    I can’t tell, sir – he hasn’t gotten to the verb yet.

    (German verbs in dependent clauses are pushed to the end, generally [wenn meine Erinnerung richtig sei] in reverse order if compound tenses.)

  248. 248.

    J R in WV

    @OldDave:

    Both Mark Knofler and Emmy Lou Harris are music gifts to the world, almost beyond compare. Their musical history is quite different, so I’m expecting to hear real creativity when I get that album. Thanks for the tip, guys.

    And Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt not far behind Emmy Lou , if you listen to the Trio albums. So sad Linda Ronstadt can no longer perform due to her Parkinsons. Not so much for us, but for her!

  249. 249.

    Quinerly

    @poleaxedbyboatwork: was her name Maggie May and perhaps you are off in remembering the years?
    Love this story. Thank you. (I just looked up Emmylou. She’s a 1947 model, I’m a ’61 model, and my ex is a 1943 model. It was Jazz Fest either ’02 or’ 07. He went to two and there was a time that we broke up for 5 years and then decided to have a “reunion tour.” I call that sort of getting back together thing as “back jacking.” Essentially, jacking off in reverse. ? But, I digress……) Have a great day!

  250. 250.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @joel hanes: Which is why any legislation that tries to promote corporate community responsibility by adding “stakeholders” to the BoD will fail utterly, unless one of two things happens:

    (1) “Fiduciary responsibility” is curtailed by dunning the corp for community costs (in terms of lost jobs, environmental damage, stuff the community would be asked to provide) from any proposed action – if it costs society more than it would make the company, the fiduciaries themselves will prevent it, or toss out the BoD that allowed it (& sue them for every dime, plus punitive damages).

    (2) “Stakeholders” show up armed with actual wooden stakes & mallets to be used in driving them through the (nominal) heart of any plutocracy-enabling Director that tries to fuck with the common good.

    The first solution is worth working out … but to tell the truth I hold a certain fondness for the second solution (though I am willing to substitute lampposts & nooses in lieu of replacing the boardroom carpets too frequently).

  251. 251.

    Mart

    Probably mentioned but having the faucet drip as discussed in the video does not stop freezing, but allows the water to expand when freezing without (hopefully) busting the pipe.

  253. 253.

    Ruckus

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    I didn’t say why some docs can’t find anything.
    I’ve got a doc at the VA that I refuse to see because he does shit for his patients. And he’s teaching his residents his lazy ass don’t give a fuck attitude. So I found a way to see someone else. And progress.
    A real problem is that everyone needs an advocate for them in the healthcare system. Some can do this themselves – I do. There is a lot of decent information out there on health and yes the tests that should be done for certain symptoms. But you sometimes have to push and always ask questions. If you can’t do this you need someone who will do it for you. Some docs are very good at this, some systems are very good at this. Treatment for my cancer had 2 options, surgery or radiation. I chose radiation but only after I spoke for over an hour each with both the surgeon who would have cut me and the oncologist who ended up zapping me. That was all the VA. That’s good medicine, giving you all the info you need to decide, and letting you know what is going on each step of the way.

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